Going clean on the go!

I wanted to write this close to a month back but here it goes out finally: My Friend Dhana along with her colleague launched MizPee and the response has been zimply phenomenal. She was just super duper excited last when I had a skype chat with her before leaving for my himalayan trip. Its the first product at YojoMobile (you can expect more cool ones from them soon!)

Well the main idea about the mobile solution is it does just one thing really really well – finding the closest, cleanest toilet!! {local ads are matched} Read more about it on the MizPee website and reviews here and there. A quick google search give 145k hits! I am like wow … talk about using the mobile for really personal stuff ;P

• 2.0 solution for the number 1 problem
• Shows you where to, er, go
• When you gotta go
• Where to go on the go
• And finally on Gizmodo!

airtel MO CNCL UNB OT

I am like this has to be blogged – for future retreival I got a bummer of a news in the morning that Tata Indicom the only provider that said will provide Internet to my place is sorry and is looking forward to revitalize our relationship on a later date ;P {I have a bigger post on that soon}!!

So, decided I will call airtel and activate GPRS (Mobile Office) and using internet on the go. Pained that its going to 43 kbps speed but atleast – its going to be always available. But I was really surprised with the activation messages I have to send. The cost is Rs 140/week (they highlight this plan only after you really dig and ask!)

Activate Mobile Office    : sms MO to 6123
Deactivate Mobile Office : sms MO CNCL to 222
Check Unbilled Amount  : sms UNB to 121
Outstanding amount       : sms OT to 121

Can airtel get more intuitive. Talk about customer experience and Usability. I wonder if this is the state everywhere else in the world. Something is really messed up in the corporate structure I think – otherwise who in the hell will say send sms to 6123 to activate and send to 222 to deactive!

I am blogging for my personal reference and hope other people benefit from it!

sms gupshup

Well Webaroo folks have launched sms groups {sms gupshup}. My first reaction is they seem to be lacking some real tech talent or innovation! Having pioneered offline mobile storage thought – they well ahead on the curve (and in the right direction) in terms or vision and technology. But their recent sms forays in terms of following twittr and textmarks and MyToday stuff – I am wondering if they have started gettting their priorities mixed up!

What I can see new here is just some lovely eye-candy regular web2.0 CSS stuff. Nothing new. Given the fact that SMS is here to stay and that they have got venture funded – can we see some more india relevant technology thats new and useful??!

May be its possible as I realized – they will be able to implement it properly and take it to market sooner/properly than MyToday folks. Reminsd me back in September when we started the SMS Groups at MyToday we were genuinely interested and really enthused. Though the service has taken sometime to build up (all virally! I estimate there will be close to half a million customers as of now), I wonder whether they have started making money with Ads. Rajesh needs to be more aggressive. Its was initially a Blue Ocean Space and its becoming bloody really really fast! There is definitely money to be made – but I guess its going to be a wait and watch game!!

PS: Don’t get me wrong if I was critical, I am just genuinely concerned of the mobile / tech scenario in India. Yes, its true I have personally worked at Netcore (MyToday) and have interacted with Webaroo when I was in MyToday and also checked them out when they called me for interview. We need innovation, hard core indian ones. Common the american mobile market is less mature and competitive than the Indian market and all we can do is ape the Americans in this matter too! wtf!!

This reminds me of my twttr comment a week back when I read about google gears – I had said:

Google gears + MOBILE! Webaroo better start thinking fast. Imagine possiblities of offline ajax apps on mobile – thats like being on ecstacy
7 days ago from web

and then this the next day

yesterday it was me, now ajit talks about google gears on mobile – http://tinyurl.com/28lrjl note: google checkout mobile is out!
6 days ago from web